Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (Winter 2009): First Look

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First Look: Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (Winter 2009)

1:40 /
March 26, 2009

The Airport Extreme Base Station is a great wireless router for Mac or novice users who need something that's simple, nice-looking, and works well for their homes. Savvy Windows users will find many other alternatives that offer a lot more features for their bucks.

>> Dong Ngo: Hello this is Dong Ngo for CNET.com and I have with me today the best looking router in the world. The new Apple Extreme Bay Station from Apple. This device has a very clean design with no buttons or any external antenna. On the front here you are going to find only 1 small status light. This light flashes amber to indicate problems or stays solid green when everything is order. On the back you are going to find a USB port and 3 gigabit Ethernet ports. The USB port can be used to host a printer or an external hard drive. Compared to the previous model of the Bay Station this new one has 2 big improvements. First, it supports 2 dome band 1SN. This means the router can simultaneously operate both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies. To take advantage of the 5 GHz frequency your client, say a laptop needs to support this too. The second improvement is the guest networking. This allows you to create a separate wireless guest network. People can use network to connect to the internet, but not to your local resources such as your computers or your printers. If you are a novice user, you can find the new Apple Extreme Bay Station easy to use. Mac user can benefit from it more than Window user as the router can be tied to Apple's MobileMe service to share resources over the internet. For more information on the router and see if it's worth the $179 price tag, check out our review at CNET.com. My name is Dong Ngo and this has been the first look at the new Apple Extreme Bay Station wireless router from Apple.